Potholes Push Holmby Hills Residents To Back 90210 Annexation

The Playboy Mansion (also known as the Playboy Mansion West) is among the homes in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles. (credit: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Is the lack of smooth surface roads enough reason for one upscale Southland neighborhood to join itself to the most famous zip code in the world?

Residents of Holmby Hills have grown so frustrated with their potholed streets that some are endorsing a proposal to enter into a tax-sharing agreement with the city of Beverly Hills in what could pave the way for annexation.

“I think what we’re talking about is no different than what happened with Trousdale Estates back in the fifties,” said Fleischman. “There’s a large chunk of land that was developed and passed along to this fellow Trousdale and that became part of Beverly Hills, formerly part of Los Angeles County.”

Fleischman also noted the successful effort to annex homes near the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Century Park East into Beverly Hills back in 1998.

“It can be done, it just takes time and money,” he said.

The proposal calls upon the Beverly Hills City Council to annex as many as 40 Holmby Hills homeowners with properties between Sunset and Beverly Glen boulevards.

And despite the potential loss of millions of dollars in property tax revenues for Los Angeles, Fleischman believes the numbers could work for both sides.

“If the city of Los Angeles can be left with enough of a tax bite, and some sharing with Beverly Hills, they would allow the switch,” he said.

But the plan has received a cool reception by Councilman John Mirisch, who told the Los Angeles Times that annexing dissatisfied neighborhoods isn’t a practical solution.

Los Angeles repairs an estimated 250,000 potholes annually throughout the city —a reality that Fleischman said he’s reminded of every morning.

“Every day I drive to work down my street carefully, and then when I finally get to Whittier Avenue, it’s just a delight because the streets are beautiful,” he said. “If we’re part of Beverly Hills, I have every confidence that they’ll pave our street.”